Research & Development

Green Pastures Counselling Services adopt leading-edge evidence-based therapeutic approaches as the guiding principle for service delivery. Thus, continuing research is an essential component to improve effectiveness of psychotherapy we offer to our clients. Conducting clinically relevant research will challenge us to reflect on our model of practice in an objective and empirical manner and to be more responsive to our client’s focus of counselling.

Founder of Green Pastures Counselling Services is in the process of exploring research opportunities and funding sources to continue research in the area of ADHD treatments as well as in the area of inter-generational tensions and conflicts between first and second generation immigrant families.

In 2014, founder of Green Pastures Counselling Services completed a three-year research for the Durham Social Services Department on Psycho-education program for families with children diagnosed with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder.

“There were several primary findings indicating that psycho-education may be a useful adjunctive intervention. The information gathered through this research suggests that the psycho-education program may hold potential as a supportive approach to increasing parental knowledge of ADHD, decrease parental stress, and increase parental use of supportive responses to children’s symptoms and behaviors.”

Despite of the benefits observed from combined treatments (medication in conjunction with other forms of therapy), symptoms of ADHD continue to manifest due to untreated anxiety (Swatzyna, 2007). There are about 30% – 35% of children affected by ADHD also suffer from anxiety disorder.

In my research study, one of the major focuses was to explore the 60% – 65% of children diagnosed with ADHD who did not meet the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorder.

Children who participated in my research scored an average of 66% on the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale at baseline. In completion of the program offered in this research, these children’s manifest anxiety reduced to an average of 36%. The result is leading to a step further to postulate that anxiety arousal may be a critical factor contributing to the symptoms of ADHD is an emerging hypothesis.